Latest Theropoda Stories

Scientists are certain that sometime around 150 million years ago birds originated from a group of small, meat-eating theropod dinosaurs called maniraptorans. According to recent studies conducted around the world, the maniraptorans were very bird-like, with feathers, hollow bones, small body sizes and high metabolic rates.

The ‘dino-bird’ Archaeopteryx has long fascinated paleontologists and a new study in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry suggests that the animal had bright plumage and wasn’t all-black as previously thought.

A recently discovered dinosaur fossil believed to pre-date those from which birds were believed to have evolved could drastically change current theories on the origins of flight, according to a new UK study.

A recent study out of North Carolina State University and the Field Museum in Chicago looks specifically at the feathered herbivores of the Cretaceous period and how their size and utility fluctuated over time.

Researchers are testing Cope’s Rule, via some of the latest statistical modeling methods, to see if and how it might have applied to dinosaurs and have found that Edward Cope and his rule were absolutely right. Except when it wasn’t.

Velociraptor, meaning “swift seizer” is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived about 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. There are two species that are presently recognized. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils of this particular species have been uncovered in Mongolia. A second species, V. osmolskae, it was named in 2008 for some skull material from Inner Mongolia, China.
They are smaller than other dromaeosaurids such as...

Tarbosaurus, meaning “alarming lizard” is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that thrived in Asia about 70 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous Period. Fossils have been uncovered in Mongolia, with more incomplete remains found further afield in parts of China.
Many species have been named, although, modern paleontologists recognize only one, T. bataar, as legitimate.
Like most tyrannosaurus, Tarbosaurus was a sizeable bipedal predator, weighing up to six...

Spinosaurus, meaning “Spine lizard,” is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the lower Albian to lower Cenomanian stages of the Mid Cretaceous Period (112 to 97 million years ago). It lived in what is now North Africa. The type species is S. aegyptiacus. A potential second species, S. maroccanus, was discovered in Morocco.
It was the first known dinosaur fossil from Egyptian remains discovered in 1912 and described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915. The original remains were...

Sinosauropteryx, meaning “Chinese reptilian wing,” is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous Period 135 to 121 million years ago. It was discovered in 1996 by two Chinese farmers in the dry countryside near Liaoning Province, China. The same area has also produced later on other bird-like dinosaur fossils including Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx.
Three complete skeletons of Sinosauropteryx have been found, including few samples of protofeathers,...

Tyrannosaurus, meaning “tyrant lizard,” was a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (68 to 65 million years ago). It was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Perhaps the most famous Tyrannosaurus species, T. rex, was named in 1905 by Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).
Teeth belonging to Tyrannosaurus were first discovered in 1874 by A. Lakes near Golden...

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.